BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Thousands of faithful, with their pet dogs or pigs dressed as babies or clowns, packed a Nicaraguan church for a Roman Catholic mass honoring animals, media reported Monday.

    The long queue of Catholics waited their turn to pass by an image of a saint in the church in a town 30 km to the south of the Nicaragua capital, Managua, on Sunday.

    Managua Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes presided over the annual mass of Saint Lazarus, the saint of animals, at the Magdalena church in the city Masaya.

    Worshippers from across the country brought their pets to the mass in the hope that the saint could protect them from illness or cure them.

    "We brought him so he does not get sick," a local resident Nora Espinosa was quoted as saying.

    Capped by a contest for the best-dressed critter, the mass is held annually ahead of Palm Sunday in Masaya.

    Locals say the tradition goes back to the colonial period after the Spanish conquest.

    (Agencies)